Leaves filiform, 1--2.5 cm, 0.2--2 mm wide. Scapes ca. 5, 5--7 cm, 3--5-ribbed; sheath equaling leaf; receptacle sparsely pubescent; heads black, turbinate, ca. 2 × 3.5 mm; involucral bracts black, obovate to oblong, ca. 2.2 × 1.3--1.8 mm, membranous, glabrous; floral bracts obovate-oblanceolate, abaxially villous at acute apex. Male flowers: sepals ca. 2 mm, abaxially white clavate hairy toward 3-parted apex, lobes oblanceolate-boatlike; petals (2 or)3, anterior one linear-oblanceolate, larger than others, sparsely hairy, gland absent, lateral ones occasionally pubescent, 1 or both with a gland; anthers (4--)6, black. Female flowers: sepals 3, free, sparsely downy, occasionally keeled; petals 3, membranous, with a few downy hairs at apex, gland usually absent; ovary 3-loculed; style 3-cleft. Seeds ellipsoid, 0.5--0.6 mm; testa hexagonally reticulate, prickles 1--3 per cell, oblong. Fl. and fr. Oct.